They may get a bad rap in the media, but many Australian brands owe their success to the Chinese Daigou.
Australia Post recently opened a concept store in the Sydney suburb of Chatswood. It doesn’t offer traditional postal services, though – it stocks health and beauty products bound only for China.
The pilot store is squarely targeting the Chinese Daigou (personal shoppers), of which there are an estimated 70,000 in Australia and a further 20,000 in New Zealand who collectively ship tens of thousands of parcels per day.
While the Daigous have attracted criticism for clearing the supermarket shelves of some high-demand products such as organic infant formula, the Daigous also endorse and support many Australian brands, according Livia Wang, a director of consulting firm Access CN, who is an expert on the Daigou phenomenon.
While a lot of people see the Daigou as illegitimate, as a group they have high influence, Wang says.
Wang shared her views recently in a panel session at The Australian’s Global Food Forum alongside the chair and founder of Jessica’s Suitcase, Jessica Rudd.
The panel, which was hosted by journalist Glenda Korporaal, sought to explore what’s happening at the coalface in China.
Wang said the sheer size of the Chinese market meant it could support multiple outlets, alliances and platforms.
One such platform is Jessica’s Suitcase, which was founded by Jessica Rudd after spending a few years living in Bejing as a young mother.
When visiting Australia, she would source as many baby products as possible to bring back with her to Beijing.
“I would go to unpack my suitcase and put everything into the pantry, and then all my Chinese mum friends would come over and raid my suitcase, and I would be, like, ‘steady on guys, this is my haul.’
“And, so, what I found was that this was a natural market... and I thought, well, maybe there’s a business in this.”
“So I set up my store. It’s called Jessica’s Suitcase, and I sell lots of mother and baby products.”
According to Rudd, it’s not always obvious which products will take off. For instance, she is selling a huge volume of coconut oil at the moment.
